But you should be able to get a new movement for around $50 and a fresh bezel insert for $20. Or find a cheap used Seiko with a 7S26 movement on eBay and let a watchmaker do the swap.

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Are you kidding? I've been all but praying for a justification to buy a new timepiece for years! This one just, wouldn't, quit. It very nearly went to the bottom of the ocean after I caught the wristband on a lifeline. The watch went falling overboard still ticking... and safely into the dinghy. Even my dad tortured me on our sailing trip from San Juan with a shiny new Automatic Diver of his own.

Maybe I should be more sentimental? I bought mine in high school with the money I earned mowing lawns. That big hefty scratch in the bezel at 6-o'clock was the first of many, yet I like to think that it prepared me for the first scratch I put on the GS when it was new!

I have worn it every day, I never take it off for anything.
It's been through a couple of mc trips to Central America and a couple of summers of swimming and kayaking plus all the mechanics and carpentry, wood splitting and hauling, cross country skiing that comes along. It bicycled 1200 miles and was my training watch for an couple of months of classic ski the Birkiebiner training.

Through all of that movement and several years it has lost 15 seconds.

Any and all suggestions for rough, waterproof, under $600 timepieces
welcome and appreciated.

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Disclaimer, I have not read through the whole thread so this may be a repeat. But here goes: The Seiko SKX series dive watches. For $200 or less, it's the most serious, legit, real use dive watch bargain in the world. Personnaly I do no like their standard stainless band and prefer the harder to find "Oyster" style--think Rolex Jubilee vs. Rolex Submariner. I personally like running mine with a "zulu" band, the one-piece nylon bands that run about $20. For $220 or less, that's a real deal bargain.

This is not my watch, but add 16-years of use and a badly faded "Pepsi" ring and that's what is on my wrist right now:

I got that one after the summer of '98 because I wanted a day feature as my job then (as now) didn't run on a normal schedule. My older Seiko dive watch is like above without the day marker and I got it at the MCRD in San Diego summer '94. That watch is one work scared mo'fo', but it's running like a tank. Neither watch has ever been down for service.

After that, I have what I believe to be the best bargain in the "I'd own a Submariner if I could afford one" category of watches. It's the Invicta 9937OB. This is the old style 9937OB with the "old bezel," get it--OB--which is the same as coin edge that Rolex uses AND the saphire crystals front and rear. I got it on a sale at World of Watches, delivered, for $200. 304L stainless, saphire crystals, Swiss movement (not assembled is Switzerland, however, so it's not "Swiss made"), and the most classic dive watch style ever for $200?! A bargain! These "old" 9937OBs are hard to get now, I'd say expect $300+. This watch did go in for service after a year, costing me $100 at the local Rolex certified watchsmith. The bezel has a nice, thich black ring that is scratch/ding resistant--a nice quality touch--and looks near new after 4+ years of almost daily wear. (Again, not my picture)

Funny, the knock-around watches haven't gone down once in well over a decades use where the "good," Swiss watch needed it's but wiped. Kind of like old Jeeps and new cars, I guess. Still, for daily wear, the Invicta 9937OB ("Fauxlex"), for days where I expect to knock the watch around (or when I don't know what day it is!), the Seikos.

Still, without a doubt, those are what I'd put up as the best two bargain watches going in the working/dive category.

Disclaimer, I have not read through the whole thread so this may be a repeat. But here goes: The Seiko SKX series dive watches. For $200 or less, it's the most serious, legit, real use dive watch bargain in the world.

I still have and wear both my Seiko titanium samurai and my Citizen Aqualand Duplex. The Citizen is quartz, and I put a battery in it every 3 years or so....and the Seiko keeps great time. Both my watches get worn 24/7...whichever one I'm wearing at the time. The only time I ever take one off is to swap them out. After hours and hours in salt water, chlorinated water, etc, the titanium cases look great.

I did buy a cheap Casio to wear while riding my dirtbike, because I was afraid of damaging my other two, but I never wear the Casio.

Have the compasses gotten any more sophisticated lately? Years ago, I had a couple compass watches, and they all were *highly* dependent a nearly impossible degree of level-ness to give you any sort of accuracy beyond +/- 45 deg. The temp sways with body temp...the altimeter sways with the weather. It was all sort of giving me "a general idea..."

I'm on my sixth year experimenting with quartz accuracy w/o radio synch. Have not touched the settings on my solar watch in all that time, and it's never been off by more than 30 seconds. Somewhere along the line, I decided radio synch was not on my top 10 list of features.

Timex E compass.
I've been wearing one of these for a couple of years now, I like it alot.
The compass requires calibrating when you haven't used it for a while, calibrating simply means turning it into calibrate mode and turning it slowly 360' twice. I dont know how acurate the compass is but at night it does point almost directly at the north star, which is how I verify it is working correctly. I paid $50 (new) off Ebay. The compass does not work well in a car.

Triva.... I bought this watch because one day a years ago I was lost on my bike way back on some dirt roads on a heavily overcast day and my GPS batteries were dead and for the life of me I could not figure out which way was north!

I still have and wear both my Seiko titanium samurai and my Citizen Aqualand Duplex. The Citizen is quartz, and I put a battery in it every 3 years or so....and the Seiko keeps great time. Both my watches get worn 24/7...whichever one I'm wearing at the time. The only time I ever take one off is to swap them out. After hours and hours in salt water, chlorinated water, etc, the titanium cases look great.

I did buy a cheap Casio to wear while riding my dirtbike, because I was afraid of damaging my other two, but I never wear the Casio.

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BHW,
Are you riding your dirtbike with your automatic watches. I knocked the hands off the last anolog watch I went dual sporting with. Switched to the Casio 5600 and no further problems.

Please understand, watches are just tools to me.
So far I have destroyed every watch that came my way since I was fourteen, I am sixty eight now. I nursed(RN) with a Swiss Army red rim which lasted 20 years and is still keeping good time but I never wore it on my wrist when riding my motorcycles since I used it when I worked on people. I wrecked a couple of other watches that I tried to ride with, even a pocket watch(I washed it.)

I had a Suunto Vector on the bars for South America and it made the trip but blew up in Mongolia on another trip. It is a large watch and a good one because of the various functions. It's still my bar watch , I had it repaired by Suunto.

The Casio G-Shock is just a wrist watch and a timer(my ears are too shot to hear the alarm). I have beat the shit out of it trying to break it. No luck so far.
I haven't even managed to scratch the crystal.

Recently I wrecked out an old RV and did hours with a saws-all, burnt up a couple of blades. The Casio never flinched.

As for a dive watch, every test I've read says the Casio is good to 200 meters.
I have other watches that are nicer but I just don't trust then to take motorcycle riding abuse.
Finally, I burn wood so splitting wood is another daily hell for what's on my wrist.

Do you have any links to shock testing for the Seiko divers?
Can you speak for their accuracy when stressed.

I'm not sure I would call $200usd reasonable unless a Seiko will run 20 years without service and hold their accuracy. 'Bombproof' means unbreakable. Also you could also argue that the looks are old school in a digital age unless you need to count your pulse. The divers are crude for an elapsed timer.

Just trying to keep this pure.
You can't ride a motorcycle underwater.

Timex E compass.
I've been wearing one of these for a couple of years now, I like it alot.
The compass requires calibrating when you haven't used it for a while, calibrating simply means turning it into calibrate mode and turning it slowly 360' twice. I dont know how acurate the compass is but at night it does point almost directly at the north star, which is how I verify it is working correctly. I paid $50 (new) off Ebay. The compass does not work well in a car.

Triva.... I bought this watch because one day a years ago I was lost on my bike way back on some dirt roads on a heavily overcast day and my GPS batteries were dead and for the life of me I could not figure out which way was north!

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There's actually some pretty basic tests to see whether your watch is tilt compensated. It's just a question of whether they sprung for the tilt-compensated compass module or one of the cheaper un-compensated modules. The error incurred by tilt is predictable, so some modules have the algorithm built in. Without it, you should see something on the order of 6deg deviation for each degree of tilt. And, of course, someone could do a teardown on a donor watch.